> Children’s shows have long featured cute characters who are easily repurposed as stuffed animals or figurines, Golin noted, but in the past few decades, they’

> Children’s shows have long featured cute characters who are easily repurposed as stuffed animals or figurines, Golin noted, but in the past few decades, they’ve become especially common (think Peppa Pig and Dora the Explorer)—largely because merchandising opportunities are now baked into the concepts from the start, rather than developed after the fact. The author of this article doesn't know much about the subject. I stopped reading at that paragraph. This shit has been going on since the 80's at least. He's off on the history of shows being made specifically to sell toys by 100%. He-Man is the first one of these I'm aware of.